Old AgeMake a list of all the words you would use to

describe people over the age of 60

Learning Objective:To identify how old age is represented in the

media

Cohen (2002)Argues that young people are relatively

powerless and an easily identifiable group to blame for society’s problems,

Young (typically) African Caribbean males are often used as scapegoats by the media to create a sense of unity through the creation of moral panic (society’s common enemy),

Media generated moral panics based on stereotypes means that all young people from a specific group get labelled as troublemakers and an antisocial problem group.

RECAP

What about old people? What do you think ?

How do you feel older people are stereotyped in the media

?

Older people

Presented in the media in quite negative ways,

Suffer from negative stereotypes more than any identifiable group,

Usually represented as being poor, forgetful, antisocial, incapable of work, in ill health, difficult and grumpy.

Key theorist Biggs (1993)

Found that old people were represented in the media TV sitcoms as being forgetful and difficult,

Cuddy and Fiske (2004) Showed that in the US TV portrayed just 1.5%

of its characters as elderly with most of them in minor roles,

Usually appeared on TV as a figure of fun and comic relief usually based on ineffective mental, physical and sexual capacities.

Gender differences Male

Represented as sexual partners of younger women (Clooney, Heffner, Willis)

Political or religious leaders (Mandela)Successful business people ( Branson, Murdoch)Experts, authoritative journalist, and

commentators.Female

Seen as invisible as they are expected to remain youthful and forever young.

Lack of positive roles.

Szmigin and Carrigan (2000)

Study of the views of advertising executives in 19 London agencies,

Types of products and services which could appropriately be represented by older people,

Agencies wary of using models which they believe might alienate pupils.

Szmigin and Carrigan (2000)

Growing number of people in the populations have changed advertising,

More older women with money to spend (the grey pound),

Increase of positive images of ageing and positive roles for older women,

Conglomerates pursuit of the older people’s market.

Visual example ....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vilUhBhNnQc

Write a response to the following statement:

Representations of the women in this ad challenge media

stereotypes of age and gender

Feedback

BenidormExplore the ways in which the extract constructs

the representation of age using the following micro elements:Camera shots, movement, angles and compositionEditingSoundMise-en-scene

Finish for homework: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD_NI7ZyMy4#t=103